William Hague on Sunday accused Russia and China of “tipping Syria closer to
civil war” as he urged the Arab League to take the lead in international
efforts to force President Bashar al-Assad from power.

Foreign Secretary William Hague and United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during a United Nations Security Council meeting on the ongoing violence in Syria at United Nations headquarters in New YorkPhoto: EPA

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Russian representative Vitaly Churkin vetoes a draft resolution backing an Arab League call for Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down Photo: AP

The Foreign Secretary said that in the wake of Russia and China deciding to veto a United Nations Security Council resolution condemning Mr Assad, Britain and its allies would work with Arab nations on further “diplomatic and economic steps” against the Syrian regime.

Warning that their double veto would only make “continued violence and instability” in Syria “more likely”, Mr Hague said future blood spilt would be “on their hands” and that the Syrian president would have been encouraged by their actions.

“Will he (Mr Assad) have been emboldened by the fact that Russia and China vetoed the resolution? Yes, I think so,” Mr Hague said. The regime’s intransigence, he added, was “tipping parts of Syria, some of the towns and cities of Syria, closer to something that begins to look like a civil war”.

Russia yesterday launched a fierce defence of its decision to veto the resolution - a move the US secretary of state Hillary Clinton described as a “travesty” - blaming the West for its failure.

“The authors of the draft Syria resolution, unfortunately, did not want to undertake an extra effort and come to a consensus,” the deputy foreign minister, Gennady Gatilov, claimed.

In an attempt to save face, Moscow said it would send a high-powered delegation to Damascus on Tuesday, led by the foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, and the foreign intelligence chief, Mikhail Fradkov, to ask Mr Assad to institute “much-needed democratic reforms”.

However, Mr Hague said the Arab League should now try to pursue their own peace plan - which calls for Mr Assad to step aisde - without UN permission.

“They should pursue their plan, they should intensify their own pressure on the Assad regime to stop the killing and allow a peaceful political transition,” he said.

As another 40 people were killed in Syria yesterday, Mrs Clinton said the US would also work to increase the diplomatic pressure on the Syrian regime and to “convince those people around President Assad that he must go”. “We will work to seek regional and national sanctions against Syria and strengthen the ones we have,” she added.

Following the failure of the UN resolution, the onus is now on the Arab League to find a new way forward when it meets in Cairo next weekend. High on the list will be the renewal of a sanctions package put on hold after Syria agreed to let in Arab League observers at the end of December.

Nabil al-Araby, the League’s secretary-general, said it would continue to try and build support for its proposals for Mr Assad to cede powers to a deputy, form a unity government with the opposition and hold elections within six months.

All other 13 permanent and current members of the security council, including South Africa and India which had earlier expressed strong reservations, had voted in favour.

Russian intransigence over the UN resolution infuriated British officials, who had attempted to alleviate Moscow’s concern that a resolution calling for regime change in Damascus would lead to international intervention.

There were also rows about Moscow’s attempts to equate the violence of Mr Assad’s response to protests against his rule with the violence of the opposition, to ensure that the resolution “did not take sides”.

However, the final straw came when Moscow suddenly demanded the withdrawal of a phrase calling on Mr Assad to withdraw his tanks and artillery from the streets - to which he had in fact agreed as far back as November under the first Arab League peace plan. In the light of the Syrian bombardment of the city of Homs on Friday night and early morning, this was enough to persuade the West that the Russians were not serious in their pursuit of a compromise.

The resolution was then pushed to a vote, to force both Russia and China to reveal their hands.

Among the angry reactions was a statement from the biggest opposition group, the Syrian National Council. “The SNC holds both governments accountable for the escalation of killings and genocide, and considers this irresponsible step a licence for the Syrian regime to kill without being held accountable,” it said.

Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the UN, said she was “disgusted”. “Any further bloodshed that flows will be on their hands,” she added, in unusually strong diplomatic language.

Turkey, once a Assad regime friend, accused Russia and China of being motivated by strategic concerns rather than the facts on the ground.

“Unfortunately, yesterday in the UN, the Cold War logic continues,” Ahmet Davutoglu, the foreign minister said. “Russia and China did not vote based on the existing realities but more a reflexive attitude against the West.”

Russia is a long-time ally of the Assad regime, a major arms provider and has use in return of the Mediterranean port of Tartus. In the continuing battle by Vladimir Putin, Russia’s prime minister, to hold on to “Great Power” status, loss of the Syrian regime would be felt as a humiliation.

China is also keen not to see a regional strategic shift brought about by “pro-democracy” activism.

In Syria, battles continued to rage yesterday. The Syrian army bombarded another rebellious suburb of Homs, Baba Amr, Mohammed Saleh, an activist based nearby said. Activists said at least 40 people died across the country, four of them children and more than half of them soldiers.

Mr Saleh said there were many Syrians like him who had hoped that peaceful protest would be enough to bring gradual change in Syria.

He said he opposed international intervention, which opposition groups outside the country increasingly demand, but that there no longer seemed room for a middle ground.

The worst fear of Syria’s neighbours is that the conflict will spiral out of control, take on an increasingly sectarian hue as the country’s Sunni majority seek revenge on the minority Alawite community to which the Assads belong, and spill into Lebanon, Iraq and beyond.

“The Syrian regime has arrested the moderate people,” Mr Saleh told The Daily Telegraph. “The ones who are left are militants who will wreak havoc.”